Locals still all shook up over the king of rock 'n' roll

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley

For Gene and Linda Taylor, today marks 25 years of bittersweet memories best defined by a photograph of the couple sitting on the third step leading into Graceland.

It's the same step Elvis Presley sat on and cried with his father the day his mother died.

"I love that picture," Linda Taylor said. "I've loved Elvis since I was 8 years old. It's kind of hard to explain, but he just always seems to make me happy."

The Taylors have been to Graceland 13 times since 1990 in search of the next great Elvis memory.

"Every time you go up there you see a little something different," Gene Taylor said. "You kind of feel that aura that he's there."

Visiting the house is a good vacation but a sad vacation, his wife added.

"It's a special thing for me and Gene. I always have to cry around the meditation garden and the grave. We just love Elvis a lot."

Their devotion to the man, however, doesn't end with visiting Graceland.

Their own home in St. Augustine holds all manner of Elvis memorabilia, from CDs to records to pictures and movies.

Even the small wooden shed in their backyard is a shrine, pumping Elvis tunes practically 24 hours a day.

And, the license plates on their cars read "Elvis 01" and "Elvis 42" (his age when he died). They tried to get "Elvis 1," but a man in Fort Walton Beach or somewhere thereabouts got to it first.

"We're big time Elvis fans no doubt," Gene Taylor said.

Locals other than the Taylors also feel a similar bond to the gyrating performer.

People such as Marie Murphy, a graphic artist with The St. Augustine Record, whose desk is covered with pictures of Elvis.

She got hooked on him when she was 10 years old. Why that young?

"His singing, his attitude," Murphy said. "He was a very generous person. I've been a fan since 1958, when I first heard 'Don't Be Cruel,'" which just happens to still be her favorite song.

She wasn't allowed to see Elvis when she was younger because all his movies were on the R-rated list then. And she didn't try to sneak into any of them either, she said.

Her collection of memorabilia keeps growing because all her friends and family continuously bring her bits and pieces related to Elvis.

"Everybody just keeps giving me stuff," Murphy said.

Others in the community still remember how they felt when Elvis died in 1977.

Peggy Patterson can instantaneously call up the memory of what she was doing the moment she found out.

"I was ironing, fixing to go to Alabama. My knees just buckled. I could not believe it," she said.

Many people she knew who were fans had no idea about his drug problems, which made his death all the more shocking, she said.

That was one of her worst days. Her second worst day, she said, "was the day he married Priscilla, of course."

Patterson, who works at Watson Realty in St. Augustine Beach, has been an Elvis fan since 1957. Well, 1956 actually. That year she performed a tap dance recital to several of Elvis' songs. And that's what got her hooked -- the music. 1957 was when she got her first 45 record player.

"He's made so many people so happy with his singing. He was gorgeous, flawless. Just perfect. I just think he's the purest singer that's ever been in entertainment."

Patterson said her house is covered with all sorts of Elvis memorabilia: several pictures, a little Elvis radio and a collection of 45 and 33 1/3 records.

"I have one picture that goes in my casket when I die," she said.

Patterson has been to Graceland before, and she plans on going back in October. Which should make for an interesting car ride.

When her family gets in the car, she said, they play Elvis and "always get lifted up."

According to the Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc., Graceland was named after the original owner's daughter, Grace. When Elvis bought the house in 1957 it had a total area of 10,266 square feet. Now it's up to 17,552 square feet.

There are 23 rooms, and an average of 700,000 people visit the house each year.

Graceland was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

Said Patterson: "Elvis transcends generations. There's a purity that comes through. I think he was so humble. I think that's part of the reason (his memory) still lasts."